The Day of Silence
by Conjuring Rain
Summary: Shadow the Hedgehog experiences something strange and unforgettable. It makes no sense at all, but he will never have the answer as to why it happened.


_**The Day of Silence**_

* * *

He moved his weary, red eyes towards the TV, finding it to be rather bothering. The voices that streamed from it entered his ears and filled them up, which he did not like at all. So, to fix the problem, he reached his gloved hand towards the table in front of him, easily grabbing the remote to the TV. He raised the remote, took aim at the TV as if he were about to shoot someone, and then clicked one of the numerous buttons on the device.

The TV instantly cut off.

Shadow the Hedgehog lowered his hand with the remote and let it drop beside him on the sofa that he was sitting on. He now just stared at the lifeless, black screen of the television, absentmindedly wondering what Rouge was doing.

Yesterday Rouge had invited Shadow to stay over for a reason that was incredibly unknown to him. For some unfathomable reason, he accepted her invite and entered her small home, not sure if it was the right thing to do or not. So he slept over in his final decision. When he woke up the next morning, Rouge was nowhere to be found.

The black hedgehog didn't bother looking around for the ravishing bat. Instead, he went to the living room and turned on the TV, completely and awfully bored. Unfortunately, the TV only gave him more boredom, along with annoyance.

Even though he was callously bored and a little annoyed, he did not feel like leaving Rouge the Bat's home. He did not want to go outside into the direful, cold wind. Shadow just felt like sitting there doing nothing, but at the same time actually _wanting_ to do something.

Drowsily and a little bit disoriented, Shadow slid off of the sofa and landed on his feet, feeling the soft carpet underneath them. He turned and sauntered over to one of the windows in the living room. The red eyed hedgehog brought his gaze outwards, looking out into the scenery that greeted him.

Trees, flowers, grass, and plants of all kinds danced furiously in the relentless wind, bathed in the sun's magnificent rays. The sky above was kissed with the colors of the afternoon, the day going into deep evening. White clouds soared about through the sky, swimming in its vivid blueness.

Shadow's eyes narrowed into small slits as he stared on. He was hoping to see Rouge walking towards the house, coming in to apologize and to tell him where she has been.

But she wasn't.

Shadow lifted his left index finger, running it along the smooth, cool glass of the window, musing. Where could Rouge be? Why would she have left without saying anything? Why did she even want him to spend the night at her place anyway?

Shadow had so many unanswered questions. All of these questions swam around in his mind, dancing and laughing at him, knowing that he wouldn't get the answers to them soon. They relished in his perplexity and ugly frustration, smiling in amusement.

The black and red hedgehog dully turned away from the window, massaging his temple with his right hand, shutting his eyes and breathing out a pithily, tired sigh. He made a quick trek back to the soft and comfortable sofa and slowly took a seat, groaning.

It was so quiet.

He felt like doing nothing at all, he felt like doing _something_.

Shadow leaned his head back, groaning once more. He noticed that it was one of those days; those days that you just felt like lying down and doing nothing, but at the same time _wanting_ to do _something_.

The black furred individual lifted his legs, switching his position on the sofa and letting his legs rest on the sofa as well. He slipped his gloved hands down to rest on his belly and sighed through his nose, staring up at the plain, white ceiling.

Suddenly, he realized he could not hear anything, not even the wind whipping dangerously at the windows. He did not even hear his movements or the sound of his heartbeat, which was strange. Shadow thought he would have been able to hear his own heartbeat!

Shadow sat up slowly, bringing a hand to his heart. He _felt_ it, but he could not _hear_ it. The hedgehog let a frown crawl on to his facial features and he decided that he was just being ridiculous. But, as he removed his hand from his heart, he noticed he could not hear that either.

Baffled but calm, Shadow the Hedgehog moved off of the sofa, disliking the complete silence. That was the only thing he heard.

Silence.

Shadow decided to talk, "Hello?"

He could not even hear his own voice.

A little worried and a bit concerned, Shadow voiced more words, talking long and loud, hoping his hearing would come back to him. However, sadly, it did not. The black hedgehog felt his heartbeat increase its speed and he let out a trembling, broken breath of a sigh.

"_What in the world?"_

Had he gone deaf?!

"_Preposterous!"_ He ruminated, red eyes going wide with shock and denial. _"That's impossible!"_

But this strange occurrence showed itself to be quite possible as Shadow started letting out wordless cries in hopes of hearing his voice again, _anything_. Depressingly, he could still hear deep and dull silence.

The dark hedgehog tried not to panic as he made his way towards the front door of the house, a malicious scowl covering his face. He reached out, grasped the doorknob, and pulled it open.

He was both surprised and a bit elated to see Rouge's familiar face staring back at him. She stood there with a face full of puzzlement and curiosity, her hands clasping bags of groceries and other items that went unknown to the Ultimate Life Form.

"Rouge…?" Shadow said, still unable to hear his own voice.

Rouge tilted her head to the side and parted her nice, wonderful lips, answering, "Shadow? What's the matter with you? You look like you've just seen a ghost or something."

To his great relief, he was gladly able to hear her symmetrical, splendiferous voice!

And, all of a sudden, other sounds blasted back into his ears. He could hear the wind, birds chirping their melodies outside, trees rustling in the violent breeze, and the sound of his and Rouge's breathing.

Shadow, filled with gladness, uncharacteristically reached over, capturing Rouge's cheeks with his hands, staring into her eyes. Then, softly, he whispered, "Say something else."

Eyes becoming wide with surprise and confusion, Rouge dropped her bags of now forgotten objects, almost taking a step back. She had no idea what was going on with Shadow. The bat looked into his eyes and noticed relief swimming in them along with a pure gleefulness.

"Shadow…I have no idea what's going on…" Rouge muttered, perplexity overwhelming her entire being.

Catching himself, Shadow pulled his hands back and stepped backwards, feeling a little embarrassed and angry with himself for showing such emotions towards her. He put on his usual cold mask and turned away. "Nothing. I was just wondering where you were."

Rouge did not look convinced, but she shrugged and picked up her bags, trying to forget what just happened a few seconds ago because Shadow clearly was trying to forget it as well. However, it felt nice to have Shadow's hands on her cheeks like that, and she would not mind having them on there again.

"I just went to the store." Rouge responded, shutting the door behind her as she wended into the house.

"You were gone almost all day." Shadow pointed out, going over to the sofa and taking a seat, not bothering to help Rouge with the bags.

Rouge only shrugged again while heading into the kitchen. She did not feel like giving Shadow an answer to that. Besides, why did he care where she went? It was not any of his business anyway.

Shadow did not like her silence. For a minute, he thought he had gone deaf again, but he heard himself breathing and that brought him more relief and a little bit more comfort.

Still, something was bothering him.

Why had he gone deaf like that, unable to hear anything?

Shadow the Hedgehog would probably never know.


End file.
